Just touched down in Siwa town

Siwa was amazing. It is so quiet and the food was great, much more North African/Moroccan than Egyptian. I wish they would open a Siwi restaurant in Cairo, probably called SIWAWI. Best part was riding our bikes back to the very rustic hotel late night armed only with flashlights. Most of the cabs are donkey carts. We went to new years at a hot spring, with goat roasted underground and sheep on a spit. Alcohol is hard to come by, though a lot of people drink on the sly, so we had only a couple beers furtively after eating dinner with some local sheikhs in one of those bedouin-style palm tree and pillow areas. Sheikh Shack! It's actually weird because there is an evident salafi current in the town, to the point where finding cigs is difficult, but then there is Siwi culture with drinking, dancing and other footloose-type activities, so that's all very interesting to observe. Also the sheikhs both smoked, and they were honest-2-god (figuratively and possibly literally), regime-appointed (I think) sheikhs, not just some oldsters I appellated that. 

Must Love Dogs

Special Burbank is pure craziness edition! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the camel dog!

Full disclosure: This post was stolen from here.

heatin' up

It's so cold in Amurrika that I haven't been able to feel my face since I landed here from Cairo. Fortunately, all that's due to change, as banker friends assure me that Wall Street's in the middle of a thermonuclear meltdown. I live like, really close to Wall Street. Definitely close enough for a nice heat dividend.

Chopper City

History lesson: Remember back after 9/11 when Rose al-Youssef ran a cover story called "Why Do They Hate Us" with pictures of menacing and angry helicopters protesting some slight by the Egyptian regime?

Just the other day I was discussing with Arab world famous film producer Rachel G. the curious lack of helicopters in Cairo's fair skies, considering the great progress Egypt has since made in winning choppers' hearts and minds. 

Today I spotted one flying low over downtown and my heart went all aflutter. To think this would've been impossible just a couple years ago...

Above I've included an old anti-helicopter propaganda picture. In it you see a Cairene youth standing on the Corniche (I think across from the Wimperial, Nile City, et al., but will have to double-check) as bullets rain down around him. The message is clear: If we allow helicopters (and thus become a "Chopper City") then we will likely perish in a hail of bullets unless we wear ascots around our necks AND tied around our heads. A very tall order indeed. 

Seriously yall, why so few helicopters in Cairo?

found a photographer

this is jason. he's the most accomplished photographer in cairo, and he's also BRITISH, btw. jason has signed on to take photos of us in cairo. us in maison thomas eating pizza, us on the corniche, us ascot-clad at the french cultural center and eating fish and chips at deals.